Charlie Chan in Egypt is a great story by itself with great acting (Warner Oland himself as Chan) and pretty credible
desert sets but . . . .

It is one of the Chan stories that actually involves historical fact . . . Egyptian Antiquity . . . and manages to
be downright spooky about it!

However . . . Maven has known just enough about Howard Carter’s opening of Pharaoh Tutankhamun's actual tomb
to find the beginning of the movie to be at least as dramatic as the movie. Maybe they cut out so much fact because
it took YEARS to do justice to Tut's "last" resting place.

As a matter of fact, the reason it took 10 years to empty out Tut's tomb was partly because his coffins
were nested inside a small room. The room was so small that Howard Carter and Company hardly had room to use the block
and tackle to get the whole thing movie . . . literally AND physically!

She came across a video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0cGkIliv9w . . . . Rita Hayworth (billed as Rita Cansino)
is doing a very sultry dance in the 1935 Dante's Inferno with Spencer Tracy. Unfortunately, Maven doesn't think
it contains the entire dance because she remembers Cansino's very long hair coming undone. . . . Just think of all those
bobby pins all over the dance floor!

That video is"Rita
Cansino," made Dante's Inferno right after she made Charlie Chan in Egypt.

Plus the music sounds suspiciously
like the music that Joan Woodbury (as Marie Collins) danced to in Charlie Chan on Broadway (1937).

POSSIBLE SPOILER
ALERT:

How is the time elapsed established after Ahmeti's tomb is opened and Professor Arnold disappearssince the
process of embalming could take upward of seventy days in pharaonic Egypt.

While part of this story may have occurred in Luxor, Egypt, the opening of the tomb was most likely
in the Valley of the Kings.

What is “mapuchari” that was put into Carol Arnold’s cigarettes?It sounds like marijuana.

Was this a lost film?Is that why the titles look so different
from other Oland/Chan movies?

Probably.

Rush’s
notes included an adaptation from AMERICAN INSTITUTE CATALOG ‘Within Our Gates:Ethnicity in American Feature Films, 19111-1960’ that the surviving prints may have been approximately seven
minutes cut from the original 72 minutes running time.[Films of Charlie Chan:Charlie Chan in Egypt. . . . Charlie Chan Family Website.]

Where was Charlie flying from?

Alexandria
seems likely since it’s on the coast.

Why was there no saddle on the donkey for Charlie?

Is "smarmy" the best word to describe Barry Arnold?

[Arnold
appeared in another mystery, with Ginger Rogers in The Thirteenth Guest in 1932.He was born in September 10, 1907, and died of cirrhosis of the liver on December 15, 1959.]

What is Snowshoes smoking in his pipe and what kind of pipe is it?

If the tomb was undergoing study, why were there cobwebs in there, other than for possible decoration?

How many men carried around straight razors (for shaving themselves OR anyone else, for that matter!)
that require a strop to sharpen?

Doesn’t anyone notice that Charlie has taken the bullet removed from Prof. Arnold’s body
after the autopsy?Or at least notice that the bullet was gone?

Why did Charlie swoon after using Barry’s violin?

Probable
residual gas in the body of the violin.

What was it that Charlie picked up off the floor in Barry’s room?

If it was part of the glass ampoule that held the gas, how did it get out of the violin and onto the
floor and what color is it?

For that matter, how and when and by whom was it put INTO the violin?

How many people would have recognized Rita Haywortb by her original name of "Cansino" and appearance
in this movie?